Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 04, 2009
Pay Grade

TangoTiger makes the argument that Selig is overpaid. I disagree in the comments.

Just before the tech bubble burst in 2000, News Corp went on a buying spree, snapping up high-tech companies including the one for which I worked, STATS, Inc. These companies were combined into a new organization, News Digital Media, or something like that. Of all the companies New Corp bought, STATS was the only one which turned a profit. It was the only one that survived. Selig is getting paid for results, not for potential future profits.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:17 AM | Commissioner | TrackBack (0)
Comments

And even though everyone added a web related business, how many have grown from zero to $ 1 billion in revenue (estimate for 2011) like mlb.com?

Teams are making money, franchises are increasing in value...why shouldn't Selig share in the rapid increase?

I am not a fan of Selig for being part of the 80's ollusion, stabbing a Vincent in the back, blindness to steroids, conflicts of interest, etc......but financially you cannot argue with the success that MLB has had financially in the past 15 years.

Posted by: Bob Tufts at February 4, 2009 11:45 AM

How much of that growth does Selig deserve credit for? How much of a difference would it make? And do you really think he would stop being commissioner if he were only paid, say, $10 million?

It's possible that the answers to these questions are: a lot; a big difference; and he would quit. If so, he's earned it; I could be persuaded. But I rather doubt it, which makes me think he's overpaid.

Posted by: BP in MN at February 4, 2009 12:30 PM

Paid for results? everybody was making money in the bubble, you pay premium because you cant find that quality elsewhere, you would have to be pretty delusional to think that MLB wouldnt have done just as well with somebody else qualified making 1 or 2 mil. The sense of entitlement and out of whack compensation ideals that go on in the US are laughable. These are not players getting paid market price, these are executives for which there is a pretty large talent pool of business savy people making 100k-250k that could produce as well. But arent old boys....

Posted by: Neal at February 4, 2009 12:52 PM

Although my union mentality doesn' like saying this, Selig is the first owner to legally cut the increasing rate of salary growth. From free agency to the collusion period, baseball's gfrowth in revenues was spent entirely on additional salaries.

He hasn't been able to get a salary cap or direct link to league revenues like the NL et al, but MLB's increase in revenues when combined with a brake on salaries enables teams to make profits....and the long term discounting of these profits enables franchise values to rise.

Selig should get credit for this.

Posted by: Bob Tufts at February 4, 2009 12:52 PM

I absolutely think Selig deserves his salary because he is one of a few who seems able to get large market and small market owners on the same page. Some of that may be the result of personal relationships, as opposed to skill, but the fact remains. MLBN and MLBAM are examples of the kind of cooperation in which baseball rarely engaged. How much credit does Selig deserve? I don't know, but it happened on his watch, so to the victor go the spoils.

Posted by: Will at February 4, 2009 01:00 PM

I just came up with a great idea: Selig should earn the median salary of the players. This will encourage him to encourage the owners to spend instead of pocketing money. It would also make it harder for salaries to be suppressed for non-economical reasons as Bud would be affected as well.

Posted by: Adam B. at February 4, 2009 02:21 PM
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